Importance: Approximately 70% of individuals critically buried in avalanche debris die within 35 minutes as a result of asphyxial cardiac arrest. An artificial air-pocket device (AAPD) that separates inhaled air from exhaled air may delay the onset of severe hypoxemia and eventual asphyxia during snow burial.
Objective: To investigate the efficacy of a new AAPD during snow burial in a supine position.
Design, setting, and participants: This comparative effectiveness trial was performed in winter 2016 with data analysis in November 2016 and November 2022. Each trial used a simulated critical avalanche burial scenario, in which a trough was dug in a snow pile and an additional air pocket of 0.5 L volume was punched into the lateral wall for each control trial. All participants were buried in a supine position. Trials could be voluntarily terminated at any time, with a maximum length of 60 minutes; trials were automatically terminated if the participant's peripheral oxygen saturation (Spo2) dropped to less than 84%.
Exposures: Each participant conducted 2 trials, one in which they breathed into the AAPD (intervention trial) and the other in which they breathed into the prepared air pocket (control trial).
Main outcomes and measures: Measurements included Spo2, cerebral oxygenation, ventilatory parameters, respiratory gas concentrations, and visual-analogue scales. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and rank test for matched survival data were used to analyze the total burial time in each trial.
Results: A total of 13 volunteers (9 men; mean [SD] age, 33 [8] years) were exposed to the intervention and control trials. Intervention trials were terminated less often (2 of 13 trials) as a result of hypoxemia than control trials (11 of 12 trials). Similarly, survival curves showed a longer duration of burial in the intervention compared with the control trials for the time to reach an Spo2 less than 84% (rank test for matched survival data: P = .003). The intervention trials, compared with the control trials, also had slower rates of decrease in fraction of inspired oxygen (mean [SD] rate, -0.8 [0.4] %/min vs -2.2 [1.2] %/min) and of increase in fraction of inspired carbon dioxide (mean [SD] rate, 0.5 [0.3] %/min vs 1.4 [0.6] %/min) and expired ventilation per minute (mean [SD] rate, 0.5 [1.0] L/min2 vs 3.9 [2.6] L/min2).
Conclusions and relevance: This comparative effectiveness trial found that the new AAPD was associated with delaying the development of hypoxemia and hypercapnia in supine participants in a critical burial scenario. Use of the AAPD may allow a longer burial time before asphyxial cardiac arrest, which might allow longer times for successful rescue by companions or by prehospital emergency medical services.